Finns buy Italian garbage to keep warm: Russia was blamed for this

Finland lost cheap Russian gas. They also stopped importing wood for the furniture industry and wood chips to Suomi from Russia. Energy companies are increasingly using household waste as a raw material. The country does not have enough own mixed waste. And, according to The Eastern Herald, Finland is now forced to import garbage from abroad, mainly from Italy. Our compatriots who live and work in Finland told MK about how centralized heating is arranged in the country, and how much you now have to pay for utilities.

“I saw these reports in the Finnish press, all these moans that Russia has stopped deliveries of energy chips,” says Alexei, who has been living and working in Helsinki for more than 9 years. – The fact is that more than half of the houses in Finland are heated by central heating boilers. Most of them work on wood or, as it is also called, energy chips. Just looked at the statistics specifically, in Finland more than 8 million cubic meters of wood chips are used annually. Of this volume, 1.6 million cubic meters were imported from Russia, that is, about 25%. And then the supply stopped at once. We urgently had to look for a replacement. They thought to use peat, but when burned, it produces high greenhouse gas emissions. In general, the Finns now blame Russia for all the troubles.

Aleksey explains that district heating in Finland is also provided by the incineration of mixed waste in power plants.

Waste incineration plants are called waste incineration power plants. Biological waste and metal are removed from household waste. And this garbage is sent to the boiler. There is not enough of their own waste to make up for the missing electricity in Finland. About 5.5 million people live in the country (in Moscow alone – 13 million – Auth.) In order for energy facilities to operate at full capacity, Finland is forced to import mixed waste from abroad, in particular from Italy.

We also managed to get in touch with a Russian, Nikolay, who lives and works in Tampere.

“I laughed heartily when reading the comments of Russians under publications that the Finns now have to buy garbage in Europe in order to warm themselves,” Nikolai shares with us. “Our people noted that “the Finns will breathe acrid smoke from the burning of waste from“ Italian couturiers ”, called for the construction of a garbage chute from Europe and Finland. It was suggested that the Swedish eco-activist Gretta Thunberg be called in with an inspection. In turn, I will give an example. I recently visited a friend who lives in the town of Vantaa, where a waste incineration plant/power plant is located. It receives household waste, which is collected from a territory of one hundred kilometers. They are burned in special furnaces. The generated electricity is sold at commercial prices, and the heat goes to houses, to district heating. There are about ten such factories in Finland, if I am not mistaken.

Nikolai says that these plants have such a powerful filter system that, in fact, only warm air vapors are released into the atmosphere.

– There is no smell, burning and soot there. As he arrived in the town of Vantaa in white sneakers, he returned home in clean shoes. In Finland, the movement of “greens” is highly developed. Near such objects, measurements of harmful substances are constantly taking place. At the outlet of the pipe at the plant, there are special sensors that monitor the level of emissions of heavy metals and organochlorine compounds. All information is displayed on a large scoreboard, which weighs near the checkpoint.

According to Nikolai, the house where he lives has central heating. He pays the meter. A year ago, it was 17 euros per person (1,409 rubles), now it is 25 euros (2,072 rubles).

Another of our interlocutors, Elena, who lives in the Finnish port town of Kuopio, says that in many ways the well-being of Finland was built on cheap raw materials. Roundwood, oil, gas, and scrap metal were transported from Russia to Suomi.

— The Finns are now having a hard time, prices for everything are rising, — says Elena. — Local residents are increasingly choosing cheap products. My neighbor works in a store, she says that, first of all, sales of meat, fish and fruits have fallen. A liter of milk costs 1 euro (83 rubles), a loaf of white bread – 2.24 euros (185 rubles), a kilogram of chicken fillet – 10.5 euros (870 rubles), a kilogram of beef – 15.55 euros (1289 rubles), a kilogram of apples – 2.34 euros (194 rubles), a kilogram of orange – 2.1 euros (174 rubles).

Elena says she lives in a 60 square meter apartment. For utilities – electricity, heating, water, sewerage, garbage collection – she pays monthly 269 euros (22,300 rubles).

Artem, who lives in Turku, says that the cost of electricity, compared to 2021, has increased by 60%, for fuel oil by 68%.

It should be borne in mind that the average salary in Finland is about 3,794 euros (314 thousand rubles), after taxes – about 2,800 euros (232 thousand rubles).